I apologize for the lack of restaurant reviews lately. My summer semester started a week ago, and the assignments are already piling up! The good news is that one of my courses will be done in half the normal time, since it’s an intersession course, so I will have a lot more time once it is over. But for now, I am swamped with course assignments, starting my application process for co-op, work, and trying to squeeze in a social life still. Hence, my attempt at squeezing in a social life results in this restaurant review. It was one of my childhood best friend’s birthday last week, so a small group of us converged over great food at Joey!There are actually two JOEY restaurants on Burrard Street in downtown Vancouver. One is the actual JOEY Burrard, while the other is JOEY Bentall One. Bentall One is located a block away from Burrard skytrain. I was a bit confused at first since my friend told me it was the Burrard location, but when I got there, it said Bentall One. Thankfully, I was at the right location! As always, the decor and ambiance was very fancy and lively. There were a lot of professionals having drinks and appies at this location.Since I was running late due to my class, they decided to order an appy while waiting for me to arrive. They were also nice enough to save me a piece of the pesto shrimp flatbread, $14.50. It was very doughy and loaded with a lot of ingredients on the top. They were also generous with the amount of shrimp. I was really considering ordering this as my main dish, but decided on getting something else.I ordered the chicken souvlaki served with skinny fries, $14.50. I was surprised when the dish came out, because I was expecting it to be on a bed of rice, with a chicken skewer. However, this wrap was really filling and delicious nonetheless. The chicken was grilled and had a hint of smokiness to it, while the other veggies and cheese inside tasted really fresh. The pita bread wrap was also very soft.Friend’s lobster grilled cheese, with brie, cheddar, and and cocktail sauce $15. I had a bite of the sandwich, and really enjoyed the strong flavour of cheddar in it. The lobster was mixed inside with the warm cheddar and brie cheese.Some of these I didn’t get a chance to taste, so I will unfortunately just have to give you guys the name and price. Ahi tuna tacos – $12.Bacon cheddar burger, sub yam fries $15.25.The 500 salad – organic quinoa, barley, watermelon radish, mint, tomatoes, avocado $13.50.If the birthday girl wants to indulge in dessert, she is allowed to. She decided to order the molten lava chocolate souffle, $8.25. Yes, it looks and sounds as good as it tastes! Thick, warm dark chocolate slowly oozes out of the molten lava cake after you dig in. The chocolate was very creamy and smooth. Paired with the raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream, it is seriously a match made in heaven.

As always, service was attentive despite the restaurant being relatively busy. I loved how the place had high ceilings, it made it feel very spacious. Music was very upbeat, and a lot of chatter all around. Is it just me, or do you guys love the noise of different merged conversations as well? If I had a job in downtown, I would definitely come here after work for some appetizers and drinks with my coworkers! A student can dream…

The Fish Shack is one of the restaurants owned by Glowbal Group Restaurants, which is pretty well known in Vancouver. Seeing that it was one of the places on the Dine Out 2014 menu, we decided to try it this weekend after making a reservation.

We went as a party of four – my friend and her boyfriend, my boyfriend, and myself. I have mixed feelings about this place, and I’m going to be as honest as I can with it here. It was definitely an interesting and unique experience atmosphere-wise, and the food was decent but my friend got horrible food poisoning afterwards from one of the dishes.

We all agreed that although the food wasn’t bad, it also wasn’t delicious either. The clam chowder was pretty good, generous portion of seafood inside and the bread bowl was also very big and filling. My boyfriend thought the fish batter for the 2 pc snapper was soggy, although the fish was alright.

He also said the chips were really good, which I agree with once they’re sprinkled with vinegar! My friends enjoyed their other dishes but one of them didn’t like the jambalaya. The Fish Shack mixed appetizer was alright as well, I think I just personally did not like the type of fish that was used. It tasted a bit bland to me, but the portions of the fish were generous.

Update: I posted this a few hours the same night after finishing our meal there. My friend told me this morning that they had severe food poisoning and had to see the doctor. He was the only one that had the fried oysters (which was an add-on option for the Dine Out menu), so that was probably what caused it. He didn’t eat anything after we went out, so chances are the culprit was the oysters! You have been warned.

Some of the food we ordered!

Decor: I really liked the decor of the restaurant. When you first walk in, you see a black wall which is filled with different facts on various types of fish, illuminated under cute little red lamps.

The other wall was filled with wooden pallets which gave off a legitimate seafood restaurant feel to it. Tacked to select pallets were cute trivial facts, jokes, or puns on seafood. The decor and look was what I liked most about this place!

Service: Our server was really funny and we enjoyed his presence. He had a sarcastic sense of humor which we enjoyed, but I could see other customers that would not appreciate it.

While we were eating, we heard some shouting and dishes dropping in the back. One of us saw and heard a server yelling in the kitchen, “don’t f**king talk to me like that” and some other workers pulling him back. However, it did not cause much of a scene or ruin our experience.

The wait time for the food was decent as well, my boyfriend and I had to wait longer for ours since we didn’t order starters, but our server confirmed this with us first.

Ambience: The restaurant was moderately busy. Not busy enough so that it was cray cray but the bar seats were all filled. There are 4 screens in the front of the restaurant, but they aren’t that big so I wouldn’t recommend coming here to watch a hockey game or the Superbowl. Speaking of the Superbowl, there was also a lady that seemed pretty intoxicated. She randomly got out of her seat at the bar and proceeded to walk all over the bar table, screaming “GO SEATTLE!!! WOOOO”. It was pretty entertaining but definitely not the right atmosphere for it, since no one else was drunk and the Superbowl had ended already (and wasn’t showing on their TVs).

Overall, the decor of the restaurant was very refreshing, friendly, and welcoming. The food itself was nothing special but the service is good. I would say to give this place a try if you are a big seafood fan and check out the decor while you’re at it!